Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. The original Marriage Law idea is also not mine, though I do own this particular spin on it.

Summary: See Previous Chapters

A/N: Because people wanted a follow-up chapter. Blame/thank Pyriel CZ


PART TWO

The Ministry of Magic was having a very unpleasant last few days.

Most of the time, the magical community did what they were told without a fuss, so all the Ministry had to do was make speeches, a few quotes for the Daily Prophet, and a new law every couple of months, and everyone was happy.

Only now, a few rebellious civilians were going against the natural order of things.

A proposal had been submitted, along with a very large donation, suggesting a marriage law to bring the Wizarding World back to its feet and revive the falling Pureblood population. Most of the magical population that had remained in England during the war with Voldemort had obeyed after a bit of quiet grumbling, but the schoolchildren (and recent graduates) of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were being downright insubordinate!

The little brats had started by sending a very nasty letter, demanding to know what made the ministry think that they had any right to interfere in other peoples' personal relationships.

The Ministry of Magic had replied with a perfectly calm and sensible letter, appropriately stuffed with legal jargon and official policies, boiling down to the fact that they were the Ministry of Magic and therefore knew what was best for the Wizarding World, up to and including personal relationships. They even included a copy of the Marriage Law and reasoning thereof.

The students of Hogwarts, rather than seeing sense and quietly complying, barricaded them inside the Hallowed Halls of their school, refusing any and all summons to come to the Ministry, sign the Marriage Registrar, and start making new little witches and wizards.

Finally, the Ministry of Magic sent a minor Official and several lackeys from the Department of Family Affairs. The official was pompous enough that the students would fall in line just to make him shut up and go away (it worked whenever they threw him at whoever the Department of International Co-operation was having trouble with that week), and the lackeys would present a show of solidarity to guilt the students into doing as they were told.


For some reason, it didn't work as planned.

The lackeys returned, frantic and missing both the official and about half of their original number. They returned not with reports of students behaving themselves, falling into line and getting married in a mass ceremony as planned, but with tales of over a thousand young and angry witches and wizards, who had taken down the Department Official and the absent lackeys, whose mortality status was currently unknown.

The survivors had fled, barely escaping with their lives and, with all due respect, would prefer to resign than go back there, if it was all the same to their superiors.

It was not all the same to their superiors. The lackeys didn't care, and still were not going back to Hogwarts, especially not in regards to anything even remotely connected to the Marriage law.

The Ministry considered sending Aurors in. Half of the force, particularly the ones with relatives at Hogwarts, suddenly came down with some horrible yet undefined illness, and were on sick leave until further notice.


The point was quickly rendered moot less than half an hour later.

The Floo fireplaces flared green. The Apparition points echoed with mass arrivals. The alarms that signalled incoming Portkeys went wild. The Students of Hogwarts had arrived, and they were out for blood and Marital Freedom.

Caught unprepared, most of those present went down under a hail of spell fire. When the remaining Aurors came running, the student forces split.

Those who had graduated and/or participated in the Battle of Hogwarts split off to take on the Aurors and the workers for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures, who had showed up to help. The rest of the students took on the remaining Ministry workers, consisting mostly of pencil pushers and the stupid or unmotivated who were only employed because of Family Connections.


It was over very quickly.

The Ministry of Magic employees were either promptly removed to the DMLE Holding Cells, or making a desperate (and quickly failing) last stand in the Wizengamot Chambers. It was noticeable as the first time in remembered history that Slytherin and Gryffindor House had worked in unity on anything, without another House acting as a buffer.

Hermione Granger and a gaggle of Ravenclaws had stormed the Ministry Archives, particularly the sections dealing with laws and proposals, and were now closeted away, the perimeter guarded by several stone-faced Hufflepuffs.

If enough people refused to acknowledge the Marriage Law, and there was no physical evidence of the law existing in the first place, then the population could not be forced to follow what was officially no more than rumour, misinformation and hearsay. It was sad that so many people had believed that nonsense and been negatively affected, but that was what happened when you blindly followed without questioning, no matter how idiotic the instruction was.

Natasja Rose, accompanied by several other students, cornered the Master of Ceremonies, the Official in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement who dealt with Emergency Powers, and a random court scribe. Held at wand-point, surrounded by young adults with a very angry and determined glint in their eyes, the Ministry Officials hastily swore the young Slytherin woman in as the new Minister of Magic.

They could hold a proper vote and ceremony some other time, the witch claimed. Right now, there were a few things that needed changing, and some measures that should be taken.

Her first act as Minister for Magic was to pass a law that all witches and wizards employed by the Ministry of Magic, present and future, had to take a general ethics course and a Basic Competency Test.

hp

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A/N: You can blame/thank Pyriel CZ for this. I had intended to leave it as a one-shot… until they sent a review that sparked a plot-bunny.

I'm not very good at writing Action or Fight scenes (which may be the reason for so few reviews in the last few chapters of The Dursley Witch), so I hope I didn't do too badly.

I have mixed feelings about Marriage Law fics. I enjoy ones that have people fighting back, getting angry and/or doing something about it. I hate ones that are a transparent excuse for your One True Pairing. Double if your One True Pairing is Teacher/Student, one old enough to be the other's parent, hated each other until you decided otherwise, and/or a homosexual relationship between two people who were heterosexual in Canon.

I have no issue with same-sex couples; I just require that they be written plausibly.

As always, Constructive Criticism is appreciated, but Flames are not.

Thanks, Nat